"Graben" has both the concrete and abstract meaning of rift, with the Saane/Sarine river valley in the bilingual Canton of Fribourg separating the linguistic areas. The Swiss-French use a similar expression: barrière de Rös(ch)ti, literally "Rösti barrier" or Rideau de rös(ch)ti ("Rösti curtain", similar to the Iron Curtain). Just like Röstigraben it has become a familiar facetious expression used whenever differences arise, e.g. the different voting results.

In social and foreign policy, the Romands tend to favour government regulation (influenced by the centralistic political mentality prevailing in France) and an active foreign policy (somewhat discarding Switzerland's neutrality), especially in relation to the European Union.

In transportation, environmental protection, and drug control, the difference is not as marked.

In recent years, however, the differences in politics seem to be weakening as the urban areas of German-speaking Switzerland vote similarly to French-speaking Western Switzerland, predominantly in Northwestern Switzerland.

By analogy, the term Polentagraben is used to refer to cultural and political differences between Italian-speaking Ticino and German-speaking Switzerland.[2] The canton of Ticino is seen as strongly supportive of traditional social values and having a much tougher stance on immigration.[3] Concerning affairs of foreign policy, the Swiss Italian-speaking population usually votes along with the German Switzerland citizens.